


Lady of Words

by Floris_Oren



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Get together fic, Kaoru is Lady K, Kaoru is trying to make extra money, Kenshin finally kisses Kaoru, Love Story, M/M, Writing, though he still misses the point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-07-23
Packaged: 2018-04-10 21:22:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4408121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Floris_Oren/pseuds/Floris_Oren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaoru, in a bid to make some extra money to keep the Dojo going, takes on a Pen Name and starts writing short fiction for a local Tokyo paper. She quickly garners fans and her Lady K persona is thriving. <br/>Real Life is hardly her fantasies, she has to keep her writing a secret but that's hard to do when she 'accidentally' based one of her main character's on Kenshin. And sometimes Kenshin knows stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lady of Words

**Author's Note:**

> this is just me indulging me. I don't know why I did this. But here it is.   
> The haiku may not be very accurate. I suck at any sort of poetry. So I used inspiration from a haiku generator. The first line is from that generator and I put the rest together as it felt right.

Editor in Chief of the Tokyo Daily Literature reads the final page of the rough draft due that day. Across from her sits a woman of small stature. She wears a bright yellow Kimono and her hair is up in a pony tail. Her dark blue eyes are cast about the room as she waits nervously for the Editor’s opinion on the piece.

Rio Koizumi finally puts the paper down and stacks the rest on top; “Very good. I do like where this is going. I’ll edit it and have it published next week. Is that agreeable to you?” she asked.

Lady Tahara Kazashi nods. “Thank you.”

“Here is your pay. Keep up the good work. And I’m not against seeing anything new from you in the future. But for now, concentrate on Kogo Kenshi.” Kaizumi smiled as she handed over a bag of coins. Kazashi takes it gratefully. Now she could provide for the small group of people she called friends.

“I’ll bring you the next instalment when I get it finished.” she promises.

“You do that,” The Editor grinned. And with that, her most favorite writer is gone. She sighs and casts a glance down at the page. Minoru Kouki signified his name all right. Radiant Truth. It fit the character quite nicely despite the bloody past he has within the story. Even the Empress is impressed by him. And it’s this thought that turns her towards the audience. Many of Tokyo’s women have fallen in “love” with the character. Not just herself. Even though people believe her paper to be deviant - they too have written in to tell her how much they enjoy the Kogo Kenshi story line in this months paper. Thank goodness there are four part. It’s also made for a nice symmetry at the end.

And the Haiku at the beginning depicting what time of year that particular part of the story took place is an interesting part of the structure. Now she is beginning to get the same in other submissions but she is determined to keep that a trait of Lady K.

Biting down on her lip, the Editor decides to read it through one more time. It had to be perfect after all.

~*~

Kaoru takes a puff from her cigarette. Her Yukata is loose and she is fresh from the bath. Before her is a small desk, on it ink, brushes and paper. Lots of paper. Some are crumpled up around her. Other’s put to the side for further contemplating. It’s the haiku’s that really get to her.

_**From Blossoms to blood** _

_**Hope lost by the sword** _

_**I stand at the river side** _

_**And cry as spring dawns** _

__

Kaoru sighs as she looks down at the haiku. It’s her sixth try in the last hour and she just isn’t getting anywhere with it. Though this one is by far the best of the former five. She puts “Part 4 ~ finale” under it. It’s good enough and possibly her Editor will know how to fix it. She’ll have to ask when she submits it in a week or two.

The scene opens as Empress Natsuki Kimiko and her trusted bodyguard escape an assassination attempt by the party that sent him to her as a peace offering. With their promise broken, and the couple on the run, Kimiko’s arch nemesis takes the throne for himself.

Now she’s run into trouble. She isn’t exactly sure what a bodyguard would do. And, there is only one person to ask.

Kaoru puts her cigarette out. Then she stands and goes out to the porch. The laundry is hanging on the line and her friends are gathered around something at the edge. She walks closer, now unable to ask Kenshin privately what he’d do. It’s been a week since Part 3 of the Kogo kenshin Chronicles had been published in the Tokyo Daily literature paper and she wonders if they have gotten around to reading it. Yet.

“Can you believe that?” Megumi is saying. “Kouki-san has to be based on you. The only thing he does not have are your violet eyes and cross shaped scar.” she was teasing Kenshin. The older man sighed but smiled as soon as he laid eyes on Kaoru.

“What’s wrong now?” Kaoru asked as if she didn’t know. She felt rather ashamed that she’d based Kouki on him so heavily. In her first draft Kouki did in fact have a cross shaped scar but it was far too close to the description of Kenshin. Even if the two were close, she assumed people would just think Lady Kazashi had a huge crush on the Choshu Ishin Shishi Patriot.

“Apparently this unworthy one is staring in these series of stories, Kaoru-Dono.” Kenshin said with a gentle smile. He held the paper that someone had scrounged up from somewhere. He handed it to her.

“ ** _With hair red as a sunset over the Blood Desert, the young swordsman is lyth of stature and highly forgettable, unless one is blind. In which case he is as beautiful as any jewel in this word…._** ” Kaoru read aloud. She hummed.

“I can’t say much about that description, anyone could have red hair. And isn’t this set in a fantasy world?” she asked. Megumi took the paper back and folded it primly.

“They’re doing illustrations as well.” Megumi sighed.

“Do you happen to have one?” Yahiko asked. Tsubame had been mentioning it on and off all week and he knew she’d be pleased if he purchased one for her. From the folds of her Kimono, Megumi procured a rice paper, ink painting of Kouki and Kimiko. The two were in an embrace, clothes strewn across the Empress’ bed and they were apparently kissing. While in the background an assassin waited for the perfect moment to strike.

“Oro?” Kenshin looked at it. “Well, this one supposes no harm will come this.”

“Why do you say that?” Kaoru asked.

“Well, this one has made many enemies, that is, and if one of them figured out who this character is actually supposed to be, than this one and those who this unworthy one calls friends will be trouble. That they will.” Kenshin said.

“And that’s different from any other time, how?” Yahiko demanded.   
“You practically defeated anyone who could match you.”

“True.” Kenshin nodded, he stood and dusted himself off. “Still. Anyone looking to make a name for themselves would do best to try and kill this unworthy one.”

“And who’s to say that it’s not just based on your description and nothing more?” Kaoru asked.

“Ah,” Kenshin nodded, “true.”

“Anyway, if anyone does come around they’ll have to get through me first!” Yahiko said, full of bluster. Kenshin laughed and then disappeared into the kitchen.

Megumi took her paper and left, Yahiko right behind her. He had to be at the Akabeko in an hour and decided to walk Megumi back to the Clinic.

Kaoru knew this was her chance to talk to Kenshin; she poked her head into the kitchen to see him cleaning fish for their meal. It’d just be them. It’d be a secret date. Kaoru sighed.

“Is something the matter, Kaoru-Dono?” Kenshin asked, he knew what that sign meant.

“I was just thinking about the next part of that story.” Kaoru said. “I mean, if I were writing it, which I am most definitely not….” she denied, well, more like lied through her teeth….”what do you think Kouki would do? I think there’d be a big fight. He and Kimiko would get away but...well...you know more about the military aspect.” she said.

This of course wasn’t the first time she’d used Kenshin as a resource. There were a lot of background military shenanigans going on in the story. Kenshin blinked violet shaded eyes at her before smiling, as if he knew what was going down, but didn’t care, at all.

“Well, Kouki would protect the Empress no matter what.” Kenshin said. “In fact, as her bodyguard he’d die for her.”

That sparked something in Kaoru. “Do you think they’d get separated and that Kimiko would think her beloved is dead?” she asked.

“Yes,” Kenshin nodded. “It’d be romantic, isn’t that what the audience of that paper wants these days?” he asked.

Kaoru blushed. The story hadn’t ever meant to be so romantic but Kaoru found that the more she wrote about a thinly disguised Kenshin that she couldn’t help but be romantic in her prose. It was hard to distinguish story from her life.

“Yes.” she said.

“Oh, by the way…” Kenshin looked as innocent as could be. “Did Saitou come around? I could have sworn I smelt cigarette smoke earlier.” he gave the air a sniff. “It doesn’t seem to be my imagination…”

“Ah, I’m just a bit stressed is all.” Kaoru admitted. “I heard it helps.” then she swirled around and high-tailed it back to her room. She shut the shoji with a firm tap. She looked at the paper littering the floor. Then set about cleaning up. She put the paper to the side to burn later. She couldn’t let anyone find out she was Lady K.

From a stack of newspapers on a shelf she drew one of the Tokyo Daily Literature from the previous month. On it was a headline about a special interview with her. No one realized that the Editor had simply given Kaoru a list of questions and told her to write an op-ed about herself.

Kaoru found it fun; developing her writer persona hadn’t ever occurred to her but here she’d been given a different way to stretch her writing muscles.

“ ** _Sitting on a high terrace overlooking Tokyo Bay, Lady K smokes a cigarette demurely. Her face is hidden behind a mask of make-up. Lips red as a rose and skin white as snow. Her Kimono is lofty in hues of reds and pink. Silk and heavily embroidered with silver thread…_**.”

Such a Kimono did not exist in Kaoru’s limited wardrobe. But, she could dream. Couldn’t she. The Courtesan-like image of Lady K was to make her far more mysterious to her fans. Now they flocked to the Red light district of Tokyo to “find” her. They never would. And the women who said they were “Lady K” where always proven wrong. Word got around even to her little Dojo and Kaoru always felt a mix of pleasure and trepidation whenever she heard of stories like these. Now she understood a bit how Kenshin must have felt when he heard about people taking his name, for whatever reason. It was nerve wracking.

Kaoru put the paper away and turned back to her manuscript. Kenshin’s idea were very good and Kaoru couldn’t pass them up. After all, it wasn’t as if she hadn’t read about those same ideas in other things that’d been published.

She set brush to paper and in under half an hour she had at least two scenes filled out. Poor Kimiko had escaped her castle barely without a scratch but her stalwart companion/lover/bodyguard had fallen to their enemies. Unbeknownst to her, kouki was being tortured for information and was going to be executed for treason.

Kaoru felt rather pleased with herself when Kenshin called her away. She joined him for dinner and tea on the porch. He was kind enough to not say anything about her new smoking habit. Kaoru only did it to see what it would feel like to be Lady K from her op-ed. True she didn’t have the splendor that she described, but she could imagine a younger version of the Lady of Words smoking in a tea house while trying to come up with her first ever master piece.

“Kaoru-dono.” Kenshin interrupted her fantasy.

“hmmm…?”

“Are you Lady K?” he asked. Gently. As ever.

kaoru grew red but maybe he missed her blush because it was dark and they only had the one lantern lit.

“Why do you ask such a thing?”

“No reason.” Kenshin shrugged.

Kaoru bit her lip, she had made it far too obvious.

“Kenshin,” Kaoru cleared her throat. “If I were Empress of Japan, and if you were my stalwart swordsman...would you love me?”

Kenshin laughed; “Of course this unworthy one would.” he decided on the spot. “in fact, Kaoru-Dono, you are my Empress already.”

Kaoru felt the flush all about her body; “Thank you, Kenshin.”

“Would you like me to prepare another bath for you?” Kenshin asked. The dishes had been done and only a semi-warm pot of tea was left to be washed.

“Oh, no…” Kaoru shook her head. “You go ahead.”

This left her washing the tea dishes. She could hear water sloshing every so often when she returned to her room. She put all of the finished pages into a box and locked it. This went under a loose floorboard. The rest she steadily fed into a brazen. It wasn’t cold but she wanted to be rid of the remnants of her failed haiku anyway.

And that evening, she went to bed with Kenshin and a Kimiko (who mysteriously looked like Kaoru) having a most intimate embrace when they once again found each other.

~*~

In the morning, Kaoru found something surprising resting outside her door. a large box. On it is a note from Kenshin wishing her well with her writing. Inside the box is a Kimono. The dark red is almost the color of Kenshin’s hair. Silver thread etches out flowers and butterflies. The Obi is light pink with the same silver thread. And the matching comb has a large rose made out of colored glass. It must have cost a fortune.

Kaoru dressed and put the comb in her hair which she has swept into a bun today. Then she goes to find Kenshin.

He’s in the kitchen, making their breakfast. She doesn’t even stop to distract him, she simply throws her arms around him from behind.

“Thank you!” she says as she kisses his neck, where the neck meets the shoulder. Kenshin shivers within her grip.

“This unworthy one is glad you like it.” Kenshin said, she blushed a little.

“How did you know?”

“This one has known for a while,” Kenshin admitted.

“And the Kimono? Kenshin is that why you haven’t been around for a while? You’ve been earning money to buy it?”

“This one made it.” Kenshin said.

kaoru gased, and kissed him again. “it’s beautiful.”

“As is your prose, Empress-dono.” Kenshin replied.

kaoru giggled; “Don’t you dare tell anyone I’m Lady K. I’ll make you pay if you do.”

“This unworthy one humbly accepts your proposition.” Kenshin joked. He turned and caught her lips in a quick, but chaste, peck.

 **  
**Kaoru couldn’t help but giggle again. Maybe he was finally picking up on the fact that she wanted him in her bed, and the sooner the better. Kenshin, for his part, didn’t know that Kaoru had wedding bells ringing in her head.


End file.
